Les Misérables review

Hi guys and welcome to my first post. My name’s Shaun and I’d love to post things related to lifestyle, books, fashion, general chatting and probably my favourite thing ever: theatre. And how can I resist when the latest big movie hit is a film adaption of my favourite musical, Les Misérables?..

Les Misérables (Les Miz for short) opened on London’s West End in 1985 as a sung-through musical. Originally opening to terrible reviews from the critics, the show has managed to show them wrong and is still in high booking to this day.

The new 2012/2013 film (Christmas Day 2012 if you’re from America and Friday the 11th of January 2013 if you’re from the UK) stars Broadway and Hollywood veteran Hugh Jackman as the leading man, Jean Valjean; a prisoner of 19 years after stealing of loaf of bread who escapes from prison and finds fortunes. Valjean bumps into workgirl-turned-prostitute Fantine (played by Anne Hathaway and best known for singing the show’s most popular song, “I Dreamed A Dream”) who’s near to death. He takes her to a hospital where she tells him that her dying wish is for him to find her daughter, Cosette, who she left with an innman and his wife in Paris. Valjean heads straight to Paris to find Cosette and finds her being looked after the rather heartless Thenadier (Sacha Baron-Cohen) and his wife, Madame Thenadier (played by Sweeney Todd and Harry Potter star Helena Bonham-Carter). He takes Cosette off of their hands for a large sum of money which leaves the Thenadiers with their other adopted daughter, Eponine. But even though Valjean has found fortune, he’s still being hunted by his old prison guard, Javert (Russell Crowe).

Ten years later and Eponine is keeping the town’s boys on their feet and especially her love interest, Marius (Eddie Redmayne). Sadly though, Eponine (now played by Samantha Barks) doesn’t feel she can share her love for him because they’ve been best friends for most of their lives. One day, Valjean (now a very, very rich man) comes to investigate the area with his very beautiful adoptive daughter, Cosette (Amanda Seyfried) where she and Marius catch eyes across the courtyard and fall instantly in love which Eponine sadly see’s… BUT I’LL SAVE THE REST FOR YOU TO SEE ON THE SCREEN!

In my opinion as a Les Miz enthusiast for quite a long time now, I thought the film had it’s strong points and it’s weak points. As a movie and for people who haven’t seen Les Miz before, it’s a perfect portrayl of both the story and the music and does the show justice in every way. They story line is very well described and the music is beautiful. The one thing that lacked for me though was the weak vocals from some of the actors that possibly could have been cast a little better. It also didn’t seem to grasp my attention as much as the stage show did and especially in the scene’s that weren’t so intimate. I think the three highlights/best done points of the movie were Hathaway’s rendition of “I Dreamed A Dream”, Samantha Barks’ rendition of “On My Own”, and Samantha and Eddie Redmayne’s rendition of “A Little Fall Of Rain” (when Eponine sadly dies).

I give this movie a very strong 4.5/5 for it’s many good points beating significantly smaller list of criticism. If you’re thinking about seeing this, you MUST go.

Join me back here at http://shaunyland.blogspot.co.uk/ next Monday evening for another blog post from me!